Two Philadelphia police officers were arrested Thursday and accused of beating a man so severely that they broke his orbital bone.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said the two officers — Sean McKnight, 30, and Kevin Robinson, 26 — acted improperly and violated training when they lied to their superiors about the encounter, claiming Najee Rivera was the aggressor in order to charge him with aggravated assault and resisting arrest.
But surveillance video of the May 2013 incident showed otherwise.
“No one, not even police officers, is above the law,” District Attorney Seth Williams said as a video screen showed Najee Rivera’s beaten, swollen face.
After Rivera’s arrest, his girlfriend went to the area and found surveillance footage of his encounter with the officers. The video shows the officers slamming him against a wall and beating him on the ground, said Rivera’s attorney Leo Flynn.
“He’s aware of what happens to people who don’t comply. He was complying,” Flynn said. “He wasn’t offering anything except screams for his life when he was being beaten.”
Attorneys for the police officers tell a different story, saying Rivera fled and refused to show his hands.
McKnight’s attorney, Brian McMonagle, said in a statement that McKnight is a “good cop” who risks his life and said suspects create risks when they flee police.
The district attorney dropped the charges against Rivera after the video of his severe beating with batons and fists surfaced. At one point, one of the officers reached out of the vehicle and knocked Rivera from his scooter.
Rivera, 22, was frightened and drove away after he was pulled over by the officers, Williams said.
Rivera was beaten so badly that another officer who arrived on the scene “thought that Mr. Rivera had been shot because there was so much blood on the ground,” according to Williams.
The two cops were immediately suspended for 30 days. They will likely be fired, Ramsey said, adding that the officers violated protocol by pursuing Rivera without sirens. The two were charged with reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, lying to authorities, falsifying records, and obstructing justice.
SOURCE: HuffPost/AP | PHOTO CREDIT: Police Department
